Investors’ failed expectations slow down bourse

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The stock market performance was somewhat sluggish yesterday mainly due to what is seen as Cargills Bank’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) failure. The failure stemmed from the disappointment investors felt on finding that the IPO did not give them the expected return for their investment, stock market analysts said.

The Cargills Bank began selling shares at Rs 8.20 but during the middle of the session they depreciated to Rs 7.90 and by the end of the day’s trading the shares settled at Rs 8.10, thus indicating a marginal gain, market analysts said.

Amid those developments both indices moved downwards. The All- Share Price Index went down by 30.7 points while R and P SL20 declined by 6.31 points. Turnover stood at Rs 518 million without any crossings.

In the retail market, the top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Cargills Bank Rs 77 million (9.6 million shares traded), Dialog Rs 52.8 million (6 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 40.6 million (1 million shares traded), JKH Rs 29.8 million (159,000 shares traded), Hayleys Rs 24.4 million (321,000 shares traded), Agalawatte Plantations Rs 17.3 million (517,000 shares traded) and Associated Motor Finance Rs 16 million (732,000 shares traded). During the day 45.5 million share volumes changed hands in 8434 transactions.

It is said high net worth and institutional investor participation was noted in Melstacorp and Dialog Axiata. Mixed interest was observed in Expolanka Holdings, Associated Motor Finance Company and JKH, while retail interest was noted in Hela Apparel Holdings, Browns Investments and Singer Sri Lanka.

Yesterday, the US dollar buying rate was Rs 317.78 and selling rate Rs 327.40.